I need help. I’m utterly distraught and upset with my sons school, does anyone have any advice?

[mummytorands]

So I’ve been awake all night with keeping my 8 year old as comfortable as possible and yesterday’s events and I wanted to go to the school today and complain about how they handled things but I think I’m going to write to the chair of governors instead so I want to box clever.

So, I leave work yesterday (I work 10 minutes from the school by car) at 2:45 my children are usually let out at 3:10-3:20. School call at 2:50 telling me my son (8) has had a fall during playtime she explained he hurt his arm, elbow hip and knee. He was grazed seen by first aid but very upset and could I get him early of course I said yes I’ll be 5 minutes. Asked then as it’s unusual for him to be as upset as she was saying as he’s quite a tough cookie has he done any damage. No she said first aid moved his arm but seems ok but he’s very upset and think it’s best you came early and that she would get my daughter for me too (5). I pull up to school a TA is bringing them both out and it was quite evident to me we needed to get to hospital. I could clearly see my son was in pain, he was holding his arm, his wrist and hand were limp. I was given no accident form but didn’t think about that until later as my main concern was to get him medical attention. I called minor injuries they said they had a 3 hour wait and they wouldn’t be able to xray today so off to a&e I went which was heaving but we were dealt with pretty swiftly. Xray and he’s broken both radius and ulna and one of the fractures is going into the growth plate. I won’t know the full extent until we see the fracture clinic in 24 hours however we were sent home in a plaster cast and sling and I’ve kept him comfortable with calpol alternating nurofen. My plan is to go into school tomorrow asking for the accident book copy but I want to see it and not have it done and back dated. I will tell them he won’t be in for the next couple of days until I know more but I’m not disclosing the damage he’s done until I know for definite.

I am furious. He very clearly to me had broken his arm the moment I seen him. She played it down to me on the phone and his arm had been manipulated and it should not have been. They did not contact me fast enough and no accident from was given. Does anyone have advice? I want to complain because I’m just so unhappy about the handling and I don’t want it to happen again but I want the first aid training to be looked into also. My poor boy.

And nursery saying “your son needs to go to A&E’ are covering their arses not demonstrating superior medical knowledge to you.

@Lyannaa "Bone fractures should not routinely be happening at playtime."
What? Have you been anywhere near a school playground recently? Kids play, they run, they dodge, they trip. Of course there will be the occasional bone break.

But school are no more able to assess whether or not a limb needs to be xrayed than a parent. They correctly assessed that there’d been an accident and the child was sore. The rest of the assessment and management is at parental discretion.

Of course they don’t- I certainly didn’t say they did!

One time isn’t routinely happening

It’s never happened to any of my 4 children! Breaking your ulna requires a considerable amount of force.

My friend's son was knocked down outside school and injured. The police attended and called for an ambulance and were told there'd be a 4-6 hour wait (as he lay in the road).

Hope your son gets better.
I'm another one who thinks your anger is misplaced though.
What exactly are you hoping to get out of a complaint to the school?

I had a teacher and two school office staff on my first aid course last year, we barely covered fractured bones, nothing more than common sense, we got taught bone sticking out! Half the course is cpr.

I missed my own DD's fractured arm for a couple of hours, my parents missed my brother's broken leg for a day as did the first aid (staffed by a nurse) where we were! It happens

First aid trained people would have recognised he was in distress, and not minimised it. The op says he had a fall during playtime,that would have been hours before school finsih time, they should have called hours ago. I know I get calls from school that are timely and explain the issue, even if it’s minor or he’s taken himself to sick bay because he’s coughing.

This happened to my DC, almost identical. They tripped on a concrete step at playtime, I was told about the accident at pick up (they didn’t ring me) ‘it’s fine, they can bend it’, but we went to A and E and it was broken. It was awful and shocking at the time. Unfortunately however accidents happen and thankfully DC recovered very quickly.

ive never broken a bone, my dh had pretty much broken every bone in his body at some point,nothing untoward they were just accidents. The fact that none of your four children have never had a broken ulna doesn’t mean this wasn’t an accident or was due to negligence.

So because it hasn't happened to you makes it an issue?

I had similar situation with my daughter at school this week. The school is not allowed to diagnose or even give there opinion, It was only that I knew one of the admin team at school and spoke with her privately (only between us two) and she said they are not allowed even if they believe it is, the rules have all changed. She also said if they call it basically because they are concerned and expect you to deal with it or go to hospital etc as it is then on the parent and not the school.

So unfortunately it doesn't matter how upset you are, this is the case for schools now, Same as new rules come in some is already in place but they are not allowed to give out paracetamol or anything. Unless you have a dr letter instructing your child needs medication.

Thank you that's interesting.

I'm going back 50yrs!

Funnily enough if you google it still comes up!

I had looked as I thought that things might have changed in that long!

If it was morning playtime when he did it then op has something to complain about but she doesn’t say she just says playtime, it could have been done at afternoon playtime 15 mins before school called her in. It’s fine to calmly ask and find out the facts of the situation then consider a complaint if it was hours before but nothing to be gained going in all guns blazing from making assumptions

I think you're over reacting. My neighbours 18 month old fell off a slide and was upset. Arm hurt, but able to move it. So they didn't take it seriously until he was still saying it hurt two days later. Turned out it was broken. And my neighbour's a GP!

Schools do their best. If they'd thought it was broken they would have called you.

I hope your son makes a good recovery

Firstly, in this case the school were very clearly very much WORSE at assessing whether this injury was a cause for concern than a parent. They had a child with a limp wrist and in large amounts of pain. OP could clearly see he needed to be medically assessed. And she was right. Btw, she says A&E was heaving but he was seen quickly which seems to suggest triage gave him some priority too. Which means there were visual signs this was a significant injury.

Anyway, the school made the wrong call in saying there was no damage and he just needed to be picked up to do being upset.

Its astonishing to me that people are arguing there is nothing for the school to learn from here.

Secondly, trained first aiders should be able to recognize who needs further medical attention. I have been first aid trained ( expired now) but the job of a first aider. is largely to stabilize things till a medic can see the injured person. This school
didn’t even recognize a medic was needed, and communicated their wrong assessment to OP. That’s a fail they need to learn from.

In the immediate aftermath of an accident adrenaline kicks in.

People have stood up after coming off motorbikes with open leg fractures.

It may well be that in the initial minutes after the accident your son did appear fine. It's fairly common.

You saw him 10 minutes later when that initial rush had worn off and pain was kicking in.

I think as long as they phoned you promptly and do record the accident properly they've not done too much wrong.

Timing is also a factor. If they know you are pretty much on the way that's a better option than waiting hours for an ambulance. If it had been 9.30am and you were uncontactable they may have taken different action.

They probably aren’t allowed to give opinion due to people going in all guns blazing, making complaints and trying to sue the school when their opinion turned out to be wrong, due to them not being professional medics

I can understand why this is replaying in your mind, and feel for your poor boy.

but the school had him checked by their first aid officer, they’re not medically trained.

you keep saying they manipulated his wrist? What exactly do you mean by that? Are they the words the school used? Or did they ask him to move his fingers/hand and he did?

So, I leave work yesterday (I work 10 minutes from the school by car) at 2:45 my children are usually let out at 3:10-3:20. School call at 2:50 telling me my son (8) has had a fall during playtime she explained he hurt his arm, elbow hip and knee. He was grazed seen by first aid but very upset and could I get him early of course I said yes I’ll be 5 minutes

I don't understand when he fell.
You said he had a fall during 'playtime.'

When was this?

Does he have afternoon play? (At my local school afternoon play is just for KS1.)

If there was a long delay between playing outside at lunch time and ringing you, that's very wrong.

Can you make it clear when the accident occurred?

It may be that they gave him priority as he was a child, my son broke a finger when he was 2, it was before we had seperate children’s a and e so it was all in one. It was heaving as it was winter and everyone had fallen on the ice but we still got seen reasonably quickly even though it wasn’t serious at all.

As a nurse who works in minor injuries I fail to see what the school has done wrong.

He fell over, he's upset, he has hurt his arm, knee and hip. They have rang you to collect him. If he was cradling his arm it's hard to assess.
You have parental responsibility and know your child best (my child's school dont know how my daughter acts when she hurts herself etc. I do as I'm her mother FYI my child wouldn't move her hand for a paper cut on her finger and we have to use distraction techniques)
Minor injuries were busy and you took him to A&E.
Radial and ulna fractures you can still move your fingers...perfectly reasonable to try and move arm to assess.
Your use of the work manipulation is what happens when fractures are displaced and need to be put back into position before surgery or cast.

None of that has happened here.
Totally understand your upset as your son is hurt!

But I think you need to cool off and reassess before going in all guns blazing!

You saw him 10 minutes later when that initial rush had worn off and pain was kicking in.

We don't know this.

It would be unusual for a school to have afternoon play for a child in year 3 or 4 but OP needs to clarify. I don't know any schools that have afternoon play for 15 mins or so before home time for children his age.